Tag: Salem witch trials

Several Different Account of Animals In Witchcraft

ANIMALS IN WITCHCRAFT

ANIMALS IN WITCHCRAFT-ANIMALS ON TRIAL

Witches and Cats

Locust on Trial

The Animals of Salem

The Animals of Finnish Witchtrials

The Trials of Familiars

Familiars of the Chelmesford witches
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WITCHES AND CATS

“The rise of Christianity in Europe heralded a fundamental shift in attitudes to
cats.  During the Middle Ages, the cat’s links with the ancient, pagan cult of
the mother goddess inspired a wave of persecution that lasted several hundred
years.  Branded as agents of the Devil, and the chosen companions of witches and
necromancers, cats, especially black ones, were enthusiastically tortured and
executed during Christian festivals all over Europe.  It was also believed that
witches disguised themselves as cats as a means of traveling around incognito,
so anyone encountering a stray cat at night felt obliged to try and kill or maim
the animal.  By teaching people to associate cats with the Devil and bad luck,
it appears that the Church provided the underprivileged and superstitious masses
with a sort of universal scapegoat, something to blame for all of the many
hardships and misfortunes of life.  Fortunately for cats, such attitudes began
to disappear gradually during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the
dawn of the so-called Age of Enlightenment.  However, not until the middle of
the nineteenth century did cats eventually begin to regain the popularity they
once enjoyed in Ancient Egypt.”

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LOCUST ON TRIAL

The discussion so far has put me in mind of a terrific book I once read on
European animal trials, which were conducted up until I think the 17th century.
One example especially pertinent to the topic at hand:  if a plague of
caterpillars or locusts or whatever infested an area, the local legal community
would put the swarm on trial.  A locust would be captured and taken to the
courthouse.  It would become the “defendant” , and would in effect stand-in for
the whole swarm.  The trial would be conducted with all pomp and circumstance,
with a lawyer appointed to represent the swarm and etc. There were a number of
standard defensive strategies, and sometimes the swarm was even judged innocent
if their lawyer was especially able.  If judged guilty, however, the locusts
were ordered to get out of town.  If the infestation abated, the trial was given
credit.  If the infestation continued, this does not appear to have been seen as
an argument against conducting animal trials in the future.  I trust the
resemblance to the raindance ceremony is fairly clear here.

The author of the book (I cannot recall the title or author; I remember that it
was published in the early 1900s and the cover shows a reproduction of an old
print, portraying the public execution of a pig by hanging) argues that such
trials are an attempt by the human community to intervene in the natural order,
to exert its will over the world.  I think this is a pretty insightful comment.

“Exerting human will over the world” could serve as a definition of the goal
of science.  Bacon sometimes describes science as the human “conquest” of
nature, and certainly many modern critiques of science (feminist, for example)
have taken this to be the self-defined goal of scientific inquiry.  I’m not
arguing for the ultimate truth of this particular position, but on the other
hand if you look at things along these lines than certain aspects of religious
and scientific thought seem to be closely related, at least in their purpose.
Bacon’s studies of heat are supposed to yield a (universal) process for making
heat, the shaman leading a raindance is trying to make it rain, the animal trial
is an attempt to bring the plague to an end etc.

Note that the various rituals used for bringing about these interventions don’t
have to work very well in each case for the ritual to be accepted within the
community.   The community may simply accept that human powers are limited in
what they can accomplish.  I believe that within alchemical studies this was a
common view; even if all the processes were carried out correctly, you might
still not create gold from lead or whatever, and in fact usually would not.
Note also that the ritual might have multiple functions within the community.
The rain-dance both be used for bringing rain and bringing about group
solidarity.  These are not mutually exclusive.  Again, I have read something
similar with respect to alchemical procedures; that the alchemist “purifying”
metals with his various tools is also going through a process of spiritual
purification.  And certainly the animal trial, even if it does not drive out the
infestation, makes the community feel better.  The community is “doing
something” about its situation, even if its acts are ineffective.

I also like the animal trial example because it muddies the waters here in
interesting ways.  The conversation to date has concerned itself with
comparing/contrasting religious/scientific thought.  Yet here we see legal
institutions using their procedures in a way that suggests a religious ritual.
Conversations on the distinctions/similarities between legal and religious
thought, and legal and scientific thought, would also be good to have.

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THE ANIMALS OF SALEM

Salem Story:  Reading the Witch Trials of 1692  by Bernard Rosenthal Cambridge
University Press 1993

p.18  John Hughes, while testifying about seeing beast transform into Sarah
Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, also mentions that on March 2 “a great white
dog followed him and then disappeared, and then that night in bed he saw a great
light and a cat at the foot of his bed.”  (from Narratives of the WC Cases 1648-
1706 ed. G. LO. Burr)

p.21  Tituba’s testimony included many animals…black dog/hog/man/yellow bird
told her to serve him; yellow bird was accompanying Sarah Good (who had already
given accusers legitimacy); also said she saw a cat with Good on other occasions

p.22  T. saw 2 cats, black and red.  “What did the cats do?  Tituba did not
know.  Had the cats hurt or threatened her?  They had scratched her. What had
they wanted of her?  They had wanted her to hurt the children. They had forced
her to pinch the children.  Did the cats suck Tituba? No, she would not let
them.”

p.82  Bridget Bishop (owner of shuffle-board and cider teenage hangout) was
testified against by Wonn, slave of John Ingerson.  He “told a story of
frightened horses, the vanishing shape of B.B. (at the time B. Oliver), the
appearance of an unknown cat, and mysterious pinchings and pain.”

p.124  Martha Carrier:  7 yr. old daughter Sarah was induced to confess that “a
cat, identifying itself as M. C., had carried Sarah along to afflict people when
her mother was in prison.”

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THE ANIMALS OF FINNISH WITCHTRIALS

I have studied over 1200 finish witch trials 1520-1700 (with PD Marko Nenonen)
and there is a certain role of animals.  “Para”  was a small “cat-like” animal,
used  to  steal  milk  and a butter called cow  lucky especially in swedish
speaking west coast in Finland.  The “Para” was not found out by judges, but it
had a long folk tradition.  There are many examples  where  a  neighboug  was
accusing  another by stealing “butter lucky” with “para”.

“Para” is just the same “trollcat”  as it  was in  Sweden and Norway. You can
find  “Para”  in court  protocolls in  western part (Swedish speaking part) in
Finland (1520-1600),  but not  in finnish speaking parts on  the  country.   So
“Para” can’t  be shamanistic (Lappland) phenomenom, but it surely is known all
parts of Scandinavia.

As time goes, You could  find “Para”  in finnish  speaking areas too, but in in
1500-1700.   So  we have  learned it  from swedish speaking people.

But, as we are dealing with animals, you can find  other animals than “trollcat”
too.  We have cases with “trolldog” which I mean the Devil with a shape of a
dog.  Some of our accused had meet the devil with a shape of a dog (and a coat).

We have at least one case with a “metapmorphose”, where people have been accused of being  “werewolves”. In Estonia the tradition of those being wolves in night time was strong.   There  were many cases like that.

I think, the idea of “trollcats” is not shamanistic, it is surely
Scandinavian!

There is quite a lot of articles abou “Para” (Trollcat)  but only few of them
would be available in english.

But, there is one point we have to keep in mind.  People were ACCUSED of having  “Para” and  they were  CONVICTED to  using witchcraft, but they were never CONVICTED TO HAVING  PARA!   The matter  of trial was not, is there really animal shaped “butter stealing” para, but it was a question of practicing
witchcraft or superstition!

In Scandinavia  we  have  very old  “lore”, written  by one historian about
1200-1300, were a man was killed by “Mara”  (bad dream animal?) because he had not kept his promise to his Finnish wife.

Another instance of using “para”, other than trying have luck in stealing
butter,  was a “Finnish way” to use a bear as a helper for  killing someone’s
cattle.  People believed that some (almost always a man) people had  ability to
force bears to kill enemy’s horse or cattle.  But I  have no  idea, if the
bear wanted some price of it’s doings (nourishment or protection).

Even in the  oldest witch  trials (before  people had  any idea about satanistic
pact with devil) witches were believed to use some animals as a helper of their
maleficium.  So, this belief must be older than the christian theory of pact.

The bear  cases  seems  to  be  common way  to do  harm among finnish speaking
people.  In some rare cases the helper was a wolf. In some cases (1670s) the
helper was a dog, but it seems that the dog was not really an animal, but it was
a Devil with a shape of a dog.

Some ladies used cows (or even  a pig)  to ride  to “Bl=E5kulla” (the Sabbath),
but  those  animals   were  usually   “borrowed”  for  some neighbour and they
were not acting like a helper –  they were forced to do so.

Lapplanders who  had  long shaman  traditions used  to use “animal spirit
helpers” to do things, but they were not accused of forcing real animals to do
any harm, as far as I know.

There is  one  big  difference  between  using  a “Para”  and a bear. “Para” was
supernatural  familiar,  but  bears  were  really  acting animals whom could be
seen.  Damage made by para was a loss of butter or milk lucky, but a damage made by bear was real.   Anyone could see the damage.

In some  cases  there  was  so  called  “tonttu”  (tomptegubben or rgubbe in
swedish).  They were not used as helpers, but You should give them  some
presents  for  getting rid  of harms  they could do. People believed,  that
“tonttu” was  living in  particular place and people living in same area were
disturbing the tonttu.  So You had to do something  to  keep tonttu  in good
mood.   Tonttu was spiritual, because no one had never catch one.   Tonttu  was
not  an animal, but small human kind of creature.

Then there was “Nekki” or “Nacken”.   It  was a  creature living in lakes and
killing people by taking them under the water.  Nekki was not a real animal and
it did not acted like a helper for  anyone – it did what  it wanted  to do.

First little  more  about “para”.   The  belief of  “para” helping to steal cows
must be very old, because in one finnish church there is a painting of para.
The painting is older than the belief that a Witch have a pact with the devil,
the devil then  giving a  “spiritum” to a helper for  the  witch (This  belief
was  not known  in Finland until 1660s.)

Secondly, I think too, that a  witch-hare (para)is  common in Sweden. Probably
Finnish  speaking  people  have  borrowed  in  from  Sweden, because there are
no witch-hares in our oldest mythology as  far as I know.  The witch-hare (para)
was mentioned  in trials  some times in the Swedish speaking area of Finland
(west coast), but not in Finnish speaking Karelia, suggesting it is borrowed.

Thirdly, I have  to check  my papers  to find  out is  there any “pet
connection” in  finnish witch  trials, but  without doing  so I can’t remember
any cases where pet animals had  some part  of being helpers and neither did PhD Marko Nenonen as we discussed today.

But I could find at least one case where a man was killed  by his own dog.  The
victim,  Antti Yrjonpoika  Paivikainen, was  a customer of famous witch  Antti
Lieroinen  who did  all kinds  of maleficium for salary.  After their contact
Paivikainen was found dead and the cause for that was  his own  dog.   So
Lieroinen  was thought  to cause the death by using victim’s own dog to  kill
him.   This  was not proved, but Lieroinen was executed for  other witchcraft
he had  done.  This happend in 1643.

Fourthly, 27.3.1641 witch Erkki Juhonpoika  Puujumala (“Treegod”) was convicted in Turku Supreme Court.  He was sentenced to death for many reasons –  for killing  people with  witchcraft etc.   He  has had an arguement with other
people and he had said that he  was going change those people into wolves with
his maleficium.  This was not proved to happen, but it was one prosecution among many.   By  the way, Treegod said that he was 120 years old.

Fifthly, we have some cases where a witch has used a snake to do some crime.
One witch  argued with  his wife  and then  separated.  Later that ex-wife get
pregnant from a snake, and later gave  birth to some snakes.  In one another
case the  snake had  gone inside  of a woman (and they used a lappish healer to
try to get it out).

Snakes had also a  strong part  of shamanism,  but I  don’t know what really was
the function of shamans snake-shape belongings(??instruments??).  Finnish
folkloristics  seem to believe that the snake was for the shamans protection.

We had few cases where a snake’s head  was used  by magical meanings.

Sixthly, in  1732  court  was  dealing  with  a   case,  where  Lauri
Heikinpoika Tervo accused his neighbor “of  sending a  bird with fire on its
head (nose)” to burn his house, which  burned.   Due to losses of protocols, we
don’t know how  the case  was handled,  but I’m sure the court did not  find
neighbor  guilty.   Birds have  been known to used to carry fire in saami
tradition (says  finnish folklorist Aune Nystrom).

Seventhly, we have found one case  where a  woman gave  birth to some frogs, and one case where a frog was put in  a box  and buried inside of a church.  The box was just like those boxes they  used with human bodies.

Eigth, we have a case where they used a  fish to  heal sick person. The idea was
that the “Grande mal” (falling sickness)  would be moved from people to fish.
So they did it, but  unfortunately one innocent person touched  the fish  and
got  himself sick.   And  of course the sickness was grande mal.

Ninth, I have a strong feeling, that finnish courts  did not tried to found  out
if  the  accused had  animal helper  or not.   The law mentioned nothing about
animal imps or  spirituals, so  they were not needed as  evidence.    Maleficium
was  maleficium  and  it could be proofed without any animal helpers or spirits.

10th According  the  old folk  tradition the  bear will  not harm the cattle if
one takes a blind puppy dog and  buries it  with some rites in the land on area,
where the bear  lives.   But I  have no evidence that this has ever been done.

11th In Finland was  believed, that  milking others  cow, would steal not only
the  milk but  the further  milk lucky  too.   I think this believe is common in
whole Scandinavia.

12th A bear  could be  sent to harm neighbour’s cattle.  But at least in one
case (1746)  shows, that it could also to sent back to harm the original witch.

13th  I have no reason to believe that the animal (exept  the bear or wolf
sended  to  do  harm) were  real ones.   If  it was  so that the helpers were
real pets, why they did not execute the pets too?

I think that the judges  has sent  the animals  to death  as they did with cases
where humans  had sexual  intercourse with  animal.  They executed both!  One
reason to not to do so could be,  that the animal was not “guilty” for anything
because it  could not  differ the right and the wrong from each other.  But so
did the raped animal neither.

14th The worms.  At least in one case the witch used worms to destroy a pig.  He
used some magical technique and  the victims  pig get “full of worms”  as  they
found  out when  they slaughtered  the sick pig. Worms could be sent to a human
being too.

15th The lycanthropy.  Werewolves had no part of  finnish trials, but they had
one in Estonia.  Why?  The Finnish people  have common roots with Estonian
people and  our languages  are still  guite similar. Our oldest  pre-christian
religion  is  common,  and   there  is  no werewolves in  that  tradition,  as
far  as I  know.   So, where the estonians got  the  idea about  werewolves?   I
think  that they have adopted it  from  germans.    Estonia  has  been  under
strong german influence, but Finland hasn’t.   So, I  believe, that  they must
have copied the idea from German “Werewolffe”.

According Maia Madar (Estonia I:  Werewolves and  poisoners, in Early Modern
European  Witchcraft  ed.     Bengt   Ankarloo  and  Gustav Henningsen,
Clarendon Press, Oxford 1990).

“Belief in werewolves was widespread.  At eighteen trials, eighteen women  and
thirteen men  were accused  of causing damage while werewolves.  At Meremoisa  1623, the  defendant Ann testified that she  had been  a werewolf  for four  years, and  had killed a horse as well as some smaller animals.  She had later hidden the wolf skin under a stone in the fields.”  (page 270)

Maia Madar tells other examples, too.  And in one  case where 18-year old Hans
had  confessed  that he  had hunted  as a  werewolf for two years, “when asked
by the judges if his body  took part  in the hunt, or if only his soul was
transmuted, Hans confirmed that  he had found a dog’s teeth-marks on  his own
leg, which  he had  received while a werewolf.  Further  asked wether  he felt
himself to  be a  man or a beast while transmuted, he told  that he  felt
himself  to be beast.” (page 271)

Madar writes:  “It was acknowledged  that people  could be transmuted not only
into werewolves, but also into bears.”

So as a lawyer I  must ask  why they  were confessing  that they were hunting as
werewolves  in  Estonia.    The  answer  must be torture. Torture was  widely
used in  Estonia ecen  it was  under the Swedish jurisdiction, where torture was
forbidden.

16th The devil in a shape of a dog.  All over the  Scandinavia we had trials
where the accused said, that the devil they’ve met had a shape of a  dog.   Why
the  dog?   Danish witchhistorian  Jens Christian V. Johanssen writes (in book
mentioned above), that  the popular culture (peoples believes) borrowed ideas
for wall-paintings in the church.

“In Ejsing church, Christ is tempted in the desert by the  devil – in the shape
of a  ferocious-looking dog!   Popular  imagination was so vivid that  on  given
occasions  the devil  came to  take his form”. (Johansen:  Denmark:  The
Sociology of Accusations in Early Modern European Witchcraft..  page 363-364).

Well, so and so.  But surely the popular culture appointed ideas from elite’s
culture.

17th The shamanism.  I have not specialised about  shamanism, so I’ll now follow  the  ideas  that  finnish  shamanism expert Anna-Leena Siikala writes  in   her  book   “Suomalainen  samanismi”  (Finnis Shamanism), Hameenlinna 1992.

Siikala writes about moving the  demon from  someone to  another.  In finnish
folklore it is usuall to remove a disease from  patient to an animal or  some
idol, like  wooden puppet.   This  is common between Middle- and  East-Siperia
shaman  too.   She remind,  that even Jesus removed demon from a man to some
pigs.  (page 187)

There is  information  about  this kind  of “removing”  in German and Estonia
too.  In Finland  this was  usually done  by soothsaying, but this was not
common in Middle-Europe or Scandinavia.

Siikala guesses, that this habit has  very old  shamanistic roots and that the
churhes middle-age tradition  has forced  this old religion. (pages 188-189)

In these cases animals are  shamans helpers  and they  carry the evil demon
away.    Shamans  (spiritual)  animal  helpers  are also spyes, Shaman can  send
them  far  away  to  collect  information  what  is happening.  Helpres  also
carry  the  information  from  here to the “heaven”.  “Because  shamans helper
animal do  not only  to take the disease to themselves,  but carry  it to
“heaven” (or  “to the other side” as shamans say), they are=20  not usuall
(real) animals” (page 191).

Siikkala says,  that middle  age church  adopted these  old ideas and they used
the idea to their rituals (to carry out demons).

Shamans used to call their helpers for instance by singing (and using the drum).
In my opinion it is surely understandable that shaman was all the  time
demonstrating  to  the  audience,  that  he  has  very important helpers.

The shaman uses his  helpers to  fight agains  other shamans helpers, too.  So
when shaman is healing a patent,  he first  find’s out where the disease has
become, and then force it to go back.  If the disease is caused by demon, you
have to fight against demon.  If it is caused by other shaman with his helpers,
so the helpers must fight together. (as Carlo Ginzburg’s “benandati” did).

The idea about shamans fighting together is old  and it  is common in Northern-
Asia, too.  In Siperia tradition the  fighning shamans could take a shape of
animals.

But I could not find any  reason to  believe that  the helper animals were real
animals in Siikalas book either.

According to Joan’s Witch Pages  they executed  a dog  in Salem Witch trials.
This is something I had  not pointed  out earlier.   If they really executed the
dog, so I’ll have to reuse my argument:  why they did not executed other
suspected “pets” too  (if the  “pet theory” is right)?

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THE TRIALS OF FAMILIARS

One reason why they may not have executed pets is  because the  law assumed
that these creatures were supernatural beings  – by  definition.  If the animals
had  been  captured,  brought to  court, examined by authorities, etc.,  it
would  have  been difficult  to avoid the conclusion that the witch’s cat or dog
was, in fact, no different from any other cat  or dog.  In addition,  according
to folklore, these animals could not be killed by ordinary  means because they
were spirits. We have found one account, for example, of a suspected familiar (a
poodle dog called Boye, belonging to Prince Rupert) being killed by a silver
bullet fired by  a ‘soldier skilled in necromancy’  at  the battle  of Marston
Moor in  1642.  Also, perhaps it was assumed that the familiars would perish as
soon as the witch  was  executed,  since they  were assumed  to depend on
her/him for  nourishment (coincidently, of course, the animals probably didn’t
survive  for  long  once their owners were incarcerated and executed).  However,
I  agree with  you that the fate of these animals is somewhat mysterious.  My
guess would be that the  witch’s  neighbours  dealt  with  them swiftly and
discretely, but I have no evidence either way. I wasn’t aware of the Salem dog
execution but will now look into this. In the bestiality trials, the animals
were not generally executed as criminals.  Rather they seem to have been
regarded as polluted creatures which might have a corrupting influence on public morality if allowed to remain alive. Thus, there was a particular incentive to identify these (real) animals and kill them.

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November 29 – Daily Feast

November 29 – Daily Feast

Too much looking back robs us of our natural ability to change things. We are too good at finding reasons for failing, too well trained in using logic to work out knotty decisions. Every thinking, praying human being has access to supernatural answers to his problems, but he cannot use only human reason. And more than anything he must not give excuses or blame others for his own mistakes. Not can we say that if we sit still long enough a miracle will happen. We have to use our minds and our hearts and our spirits – but we must also obey the rules.

~ Some of us seem to have a peculiar intuition. ~

OHIYESA – SANTEE DAKOTA

‘A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II’ by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Magick is All Around Us

Magick is All Around Us

Author:   Luna   

Sometimes I get my inspirations from the simplest things. Sometimes it’s just a walk in the woods, and sometimes it’s the time of year or the holiday. Other times, it’s from interacting with a variety of people or animals, from playing with my dogs to working with native Chinese people. This time, inspiration came from somewhere I wasn’t expecting: one of the emails you guys have been sending me (thank you, thank you, thank you, by the way) .

A few weeks before writing this, I got an email from someone with a question I wasn’t quite expecting. The writer asked, “Do you think I can do magic with all this reality around me?” I have to admit that I’ve never been asked a question like that before. And, for a little while, I was confused as to how to respond to it. But then it came to me: perhaps the person who emailed me was having trouble sensing the magick in his everyday life and the forces he wanted to work with. This was something that I struggled with back when I first came to Wicca and that has taken practice for me to become good at. Not only that, but for many people coming to Wicca from a paradigm that sees magick as a thing of fantasy, this can be a really difficult barrier to overcome. So let’s talk about it a bit, shall we?

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about this dilemma is the two different spellings that get used: magic and magick. With just the addition of a simple letter, we can change the meaning of what we would’ve thought of before as just one thing: a force of fantasy capable of creating great change and wonder but that is impossible to achieve in real life.

Now, you guys may or may not have noticed this, but in my essays for the Witches’ Voice, I tend to prefer the spelling with a k, and there is a reason for this. The main reason for this is to maintain a bit of separation between the magick I work with in my life and the magic I’m used to in role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons and video games. When I first came to Wicca, I didn’t know that there could be one letter that could, for some of us, differentiate between two completely different concepts. And let me tell you, if you think I’m talking crazy again: I’m pretty sure throwing fireballs and a simple prosperity spell don’t fall under the same paradigm. That’s just my take on it. But I hope the explanation helps a little.

The next problem we come to in dealing with this barrier has to do with where we come from in terms of religion. I think I speak for a lot of us who came from either a Judeo-Christian background or from another religion that doesn’t see magick the same way that much of the Neopagan or at least the Wiccan community does. I know that for me, when I grew up, I didn’t think of magick in the same way. When I was younger, Harry Potter and The Wizard of Oz provided my definitions of Witchcraft and magic. To my young mind, the only kind of magic I knew existed in fiction and wasn’t possible in real life.

Not only that, but growing up originally in the Christian faith, magic and religion didn’t mix. And I’m sure that, in some areas where you might live (and this is based only on my experience) , magick and Witchcraft are seen in a very different light. I’ve heard about so much about a number of Fundamentalists and some other sects of Christianity who denounce Wiccans and others as being in league with the devil or some such nonsense. Most if not all of us have at least heard of the Salem Witch Trials and other occurrences from what has been called the Burning Times. Now, even though I’ve left my Christian roots somewhat behind, I have a great respect for Christianity and many of its adherents. I have no problem with Christianity as a whole. It’s just some people who become very extreme and hateful about what I choose to believe and practice. I know it’s not always Christians who say these things, but it’s mainly what comes to mind. And I’m sure it’s what comes to mind for some of you, who came to Wicca or another Pagan path from a similar background to mine. And coming from a background and religious paradigm that sees magic as non-existent or confined to fiction (and those who claim to work as, at best, perhaps slightly delusional and, at worst, evil people) , accepting magick into the way one perceives reality can be rather challenging. Believe me when I say that I’ve been there and done that.
(I really hope I’m not confusing any newcomers with the whole magic/magick thing at this point…)

What’s important to keep in mind is that magick doesn’t work the same as how we’ve seen it in books, movies, video games, etc. Magick in reality is much more subtle; you don’t see people throwing fireballs at each other or calling down lightning from the sky because things don’t work that way. In fact, I like to think of how magick works in our world (as opposed to Harry Potter, great though the series is) as something akin to the wonders of a cup of tea. Why a cup of tea, you ask? Well, it may not seem like it’s doing much, but there is a certain calming power about it when you feel distressed (or, in the case of raspberry leaf tea, really helps out with bad and painful—uh, that might be TMI) . That, and it reminds me of something my dad said when I came out of the broom closet to him. While it was obvious (as many of you know from reading my essays) that my dad would see magick as being impossible, he is more than willing to admit the wonders of cup of tea has when I’m having a nuclear meltdown. I must admit that a part of me giggled inside, thinking, “Uh, Dad? That can be magick too.”

It’s often in the little things that we wouldn’t think of as magick or wouldn’t tend to notice. I often find that the magick I sense in the world always gives me a little tingle of excitement or is tied to an emotion. It could be the calming feeling that comes when watching the waves as they drift in and out with the tide. It could be the smell of a rose or any flower. It could be the sun shining down on you on a nice day (or in the midst of a ton of snow) . It could be that feeling you have when you’re with the one you love, that tender moment when you kiss. For me, this magick I sense often comes when I’m swimming, usually in a lake or in the ocean (chlorinated pool water doesn’t cut it for this type of experience, too many chemicals) . For some reason, whenever I get farther out into the water or even when I’m in open water with only a boat nearby, I feel this surge of energy and giddiness. One thing to try is to really pay attention to those feelings and sensations. At least from my experience, they can definitely be magickal.

The last barrier I wan to talk about in talking about magick in one’s life is visualization. Some of us come to Wicca or another Pagan path with a lack of practice in visualization. Now, I talked about this in my “The Importance of Basic Techniques” essay way back when, but visualization is an essential to magickal workings as well as other aspects of a Pagan faith. For many who come to Wicca or another path from a background that doesn’t see magick as part of reality, sometimes a lack of visualization skills can impact their first attempts to work with magick. Believe me, that was I a few years ago when I was first starting out. However, with some practice, I’ve found that this is the easiest barrier to overcome, especially once the importance of this technique has been explained properly. I’ve received an email in response to that essay that thanked me for clearing up why it was so important, as the sender had merely been told to practice these techniques without any explanation as to why it mattered (I really do enjoy some of the responses I get) .

So, thinking back to “The Importance of Basic Techniques” and my evening with Max, I want you to try this exercise, if you care to oblige me (you don’t have to) . Go ahead and hold your hands a little ways apart from each other and try to feel a ball of energy between them. Nothing yet? Now try it again but try to clearly picture the ball in your mind. It doesn’t matter is how big the ball is, but I want you to actively visualize it. Picture a ball forming between your hands. It can be any color you like and can take on any aspect. Are you seeing a difference? Even if you don’t see anything (which may not happen; it didn’t for me before) , you can probably feel something keeping your hands from coming together. Visualization definitely makes a difference in that exercise.

I’m going to leave you with a few resources that really address some of the questions about magick and visualization for those who are still having trouble. The first one is, of course, the “Wicca First Degree” videos from user MagickTV on YouTube. I mentioned them back when I talked about basic techniques, but I want to give it another mention and a recommendation to check out the rest of the series as well. In particular, the exercises they give in addition to the main lessons are extremely helpful when working on visualization. Along with that, I’ve got a bit of reading material for you as well. The two main books I want to recommend are “The Inner Temple of Witchcraft” by Christopher Penczack and “Natural Witchery: Intuitive, Personal and Practical Magick” by Ellen Dugan. These two books place a lot of emphasis on visualization and psychic/magickal development for the beginner, and they’ve been a big help to me.

So, in conclusion, is it hard to sense magick in our everyday lives? For some of us, it can be, especially when we take our first few tentative steps down our chosen paths. Is it there, part of the reality around us? Of course it is, even if we don’t always notice it. And, to answer the question posed to me by a curious reader, can you work magick with all this reality around us? Yes, you can. It may be difficult at times, and you may find that some techniques may not work as well for you. But so long as you keep an open mind and an open heart, and as long as the work is meaningful to you, I personally see no reason why you can’t.

Magick is everywhere around us, part of the reality we live. And, for my part at least, it’s one of the things that makes life and spirituality truly special for any young Pagan, Wiccan or Witch.

____________________________

Footnotes:
“You Don’t Always Need Magick” by Luna
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usmn and c=words and id=15186

“The Importance of Basic Techniques” by Luna
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usmn and c=words and id=15057

From The Lips Of A Witch – Very Moving & Thought Provoking Poem

Wiccan Images

From The Lips Of A Witch…

Ye of little faith,
no tears for the Witch-
I beseech thee.
For this is my way,
I choose my Path,
and the ground reaches up to greet me.

The sun beats upon me,
tired and weary each step
yet no tears on my face you shall see-
This Witch has no reason to have wept.

In my face
The Witch’s tell tale lines,
each furrow an etch of wisdom gained
Yet no knowledge will you possess
If you strike and cause me pain

I see those things
you turn your back on
Betrayed by your fallen hope
You cannot bend me to your will
or sentence me to beg and grope

So still the fluttering of your hands,
your anger at my faith
I am a Witch, this much is true,
It is my Path- my Fate.

Pull close your heart,
And finally see
the emotion in my face
It is not fear, nor malice there…
just the serenity and grace.

I found my way through
love and light,
I grew to be who I am
It was not hate that got me here,
or fear of the God of Man

I found the Witch within my heart-
Or did the Witch find me?
We are one, and so the same
forever here to be.

So Goddess Bless, and
be true to yours,
and I shall be true to mine…
We’re all sisters and brothers under the skin,
regardless of our Divine.

 

Wiccan Pictures

The Witch Hunts of Old Hit Home

I have been thumbing through some of my books. Truthfully as I look through them, I can’t find anything at all that interests me to talk about. Except one thing that I learned about not to long ago that happened in my hometown.

All of my family came out of the mountains of Eastern and Central Kentucky. Most of the men were coal miners and the women were homemakers. I remember my father had come from a family of 13 children. There would have been 15 but two of them died as babies. My mother came from only a family of 3 children. Her baby sister passed on when she was 12 from lockjaw. She stepped on a rusty nail and there was no cure at the time. My father and mother met, married and moved to Western Kentucky. I grew up in this area and have lived here all my life. I always thought it was a very peaceful and lovely place to live. All those thoughts were scattered to the wind the other day. I learned of something terrible that had happened here. Down where the floodwall now stands on the other side of it, three witches were hanged. I cried.

The thought of those women or so called witches has been weighing on my mind. The is the first time, I had ever heard of the witch hunts and executions coming this far south. The details of the hanging are unknown to me. The names of the victims and what they were accused of is also. I want to know about these women. I feel a yearning to know. Perhaps it is a sisterhood or perhaps there Spirits are calling to me, I don’t know. But I want to find out.

I haven’t mentioned any of these to my husband yet. I know what he will say, “leave it alone. Don’t go snooping.” I had an aunt on my father’s side to just disappear. No one in the family ever talked about her. The only reason I know is because I did a little genealogy on my own. She showed up in the censuses and I also found a birth record of her. I even asked my sister about her and she had never heard of her either. It was always public knowledge that women on both sides of the family practiced healings and witchcraft. It makes me wonder if one of those women could have been my aunt.

I cannot even begin to think how to go about researching something like this. I know my husband runs across transcripts of Witch Trials no one had ever heard of before. He gave me one not to long ago about a trial in Pennsylvania that I have found no record of anywhere. I would love to find out more about these women. I would especially like to know if one of them was my aunt.

Perhaps this explains the strong feelings I have in regards to the Burning Times. Perhaps it explains why I am always talking about our Ancestors. I know I had several stoned and hung, distant ones not like an aunt. To me, an aunt is blood, real blood. I feel a responsible to find out what happened to her. Then I stop to think, if it was my aunt could I honestly handle the cruelty that I found out she suffered. Who knows if she was an actually practitioner? She might have been one of my relatives that was completely innocent. The thought of that makes me sick. The thought of her being tortured and no telling what else, just to make her confess. Then taken out to a gallows or even a tree and hung, it makes me cry. It is different when you read and heard about the old ones back in the 1600’s. But when you wonder if one of these women could have been your  aunt hung back in the early 1900’s. It hits home. It hits you square in your heart and soul.

The cruelty of people. How could people treat any of them the way they did? Did these people have any regrets? Didn’t they have any compassion for another human being? What happened back then, did the world go mad? I guess due to my tolerance and compassion for others, I will never understand it.

All I know is I want to know who these women were. Whether any of them were my aunt or not, I pray the Goddess gave them peace and comfort. I truly pray they were reborn into a much kinder and gentler world from which they came.

This Is Halloween! Salem During The Samhain Season

This Is Halloween! Salem During The Samhain Season
By Artemisia, Nicole, Maeve, Phoenix ShadowDancer, and Roisin
Salem, MA was founded by Puritans sailing from England in 1629. The town is notorious for the witch trials that took place in the vicinity in 1692. We know that the Salem “witches” were innocent victims of mass hysteria. The first “witch” was hung in June of that year. In October, 13 executed women and 5 executed men later, the witch-trials were suspended. From then on, witches, the devil, and any vestige of the occult left Salem for over 250 years and Salem reverted to yet another boring, Puritan New England town.
Not until the 1970s did the witches return to Salem… and this time they brought T-shirts.
Salem is Halloween 365 days a year, so you can imagine what events take place during the week of Halloween! A few former-residents of Salem along with some local pagans offer an insiders’ view of Salem during this season.
Fun Things To Do In Salem by Phoenix ShadowDancer
Living close to Salem has always felt like a privilege to me. From the days when I was a child, when my dad would take me to the “witch shop” (Crow Haven Corner) to today, when I go to feel the amazing spiritual and magickal energy, I have always loved the town. There are so many things that a magickal person can do in this beautiful little town, from historical site-seeing to really amazing food. One of my favorite things to do is to walk through the “witch’s memorial” (which isn’t really a memorial to witches at all…since it is most likely that the women and man killed were probably not witches) to the old cemetery, sit on the wall, and write in my journal or just meditate. It’s a beautiful site. Another favorite is to visit all of the occult shops. Of course, many of them carry the same products, but the atmosphere when you walk into these shops creates a warm, fuzzy feeling all over.
There are millions of historical sites to see in Salem. There is the Witch’s Museum (which harbors a bunch of wax figures and tells the story of the Salem Witch Trials), the House of Seven Gables, which was once home to writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, and, of course, the Witch’s Dungeon which I have actually never been to. During the autumn season, Salem hosts a month-long festival called “Haunted Happenings”, which creates an eerie flare for visiting these sites.
Finally, there are numerous groups of pagan men and women in Salem who never feel squeamish about walking around in their cloaks, and “witchy attire”. This was my favorite part about Salem. Usually, a large pagan group called the “Temple of Nine Wells” will put on a public ritual for each pagan holiday, which are inspirational and all-together fun. For Samhain, they often gather at Gallows Hill for a large public ritual (which often consists of hundreds of people) and then process to town from there in memory of those who were executed for their beliefs. No matter what your interest, the autumn season is always a wonderful time to visit the town of Salem. During this season, everyone is a witch .
Avoiding Salem by Roisin
I have never been to Salem for Halloween. I’ve thought about it a few times, but I’ve always decided not to go. I go up to Salem a few times a year, usually on weekends in the summer to check out the Peabody Essex Museum and do a little shopping. You may wonder why, and many people I’ve met, given my religious beliefs and geographic location, are shocked to hear that I avoid Salem from October 1 through November 2. The reason for that is the same reason I avoid all Irish bars on St. Patrick’s Day. It doesn’t have a lot to do with green beer and green beer vomit (but that does count for something). No, I stay away because I celebrate my heritage 365 days a year. I don’t need to be squeezed into an overcrowded bar and have some drunk spill beer on me while singing “Danny Boy” off-key. As for Halloween in Salem, I celebrate my faith in the Goddess every day. I don’t need to freeze my ass off wandering around the streets of Salem while freaky (deliberately freaky) guys and girls try to pick me up, on the assumption that Pagan chicks are poly, easy, and like to f—- anything. I also don’t need to deal with the witchier-than-thou types in Salem, whose own brand of Goddess is the only one acceptable. I also don’t like the overly commercial nature of the holiday up there. Still, Salem is a fun town to visit, but I like to do it on my terms, not everybody else’s.
When You Can’t Get To Salem, Go To Boston!  By Nicole
I have lived in Boston all my life and since Salem on Halloween can be pretty a pretty crowded scene, I usually stay local and keep it simple. Salem is not the only spooky place in New England. A trip to some of the oldest cemeteries in America makes for a “grave” Halloween experience. Mt. Auburn Cemetery, founded in 1831, is the final resting place of thousands of distinguished people including 19th century poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and artist Winslow Homer as well as 20th century visionary Buckminster Fuller. Mt. Auburn commemorates the dead in a tranquil, natural setting “embellished” with ornamental plantings, monuments, fences, fountains and chapels that also makes it a place for the living. You can go, have a picnic on a tomb, write in your journal, and romanticize about the past. Park Street Church, the site of the old town granary (where grain was kept before the Revolution) dates back to 1809. The Church was the first location of Sunday School in 1818. On July 4th, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison gave his first public anti-slavery speech here and two years later “My Country, Tis of Thee” was sung for the first time by the church’s choir. But Park Street Church is best known for its cemetery, where at least 1,600 people are known to be buried, dating from the 1600s. Among those laid to rest are Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and the victims of the Boston Massacre. Elizabeth Vergoose, buried here in 1690, is believed to be the storyteller later immortalized as Mother Goose. There’s nothing more fall-feeling than crunching through fallen leaves around the Granary graveyard with the smell of roasting peanuts in the air and sipping some hot cider.
A day pensive day spent grave-hopping ends nicely with a night dancing at ManRay Nightclub, home of New England’s underground scene, catering to a variety of alternative cultures. ManRay can guarantee a spooktacular Halloween night! Dance the night away with vampires, dominatrix damsels, and sexy heathens… and those are the regulars! With an annual costume competition cannot be rivaled with awards like “best use of pvc tape in a costume” the night always promises a lot of laughs, dancing, and great people watching.
Disillusionment Of Salem by Maeve
Dis`il*lu”sion*ment, n. The act of freeing from an illusion, or the state of being freed there from. As a child growing up I always thought of Salem of being this real life mystical place. As a teenager I craved to be there on Halloween. The night that was already charged with so much meaning I felt would be that much more powerful there. A couple of years ago I was able to realize that childhood idea but it wasn’t what I expected. The only thing to compare it to is Mardi Gras: streets full of people, outrageous costumes, insane behavior, drinking and a few drugs here and there… not much in the way of mystical experiences. Salem is an old town with a lot of history but it was not the source of a lot of the history we were taught. There was a lot of energy but it was very chaotic and came from the people I was surrounded by not the environment. I think in my head I had pictured bustling activity of like-minded people or some such thing. While I can say that I have experienced Salem at Halloween and there were some positive things; it was an experience that freed me from my childhood illusions.
Living In Salem On Halloween by Artemisia
As someone who can claim to be quite familiar with Salem, once being a local and having much family who lives in the area, I feel that there is definitely something special about Salem. The energy in and around the area is very mystical; perhaps because it is surrounded by the ocean and marshland or perhaps it just cannot be explained. I can say for sure, however, that the endearing qualities of Salem are not due to the Haunted Happenings events each October, but rather, in spite of the hordes of people that go there for Halloween. There is nothing better than walking down the brick-laid streets looking up at the brick buildings, crunching along in the leaves, watching your breath puff in the cool, damp air on a sunny October day. This downtown area has something for everyone: great restaurants, cafes for the college kids, shops full of supplies for the practicing pagans, tourist traps for the visitors, local grocers, museums, unique book stores, plenty of good seafood, great bars full of local characters, antique shops, one of the oldest hotels in America, and great architecture. If you wander a little further off the path, you can walk out to the wharf and see the boats in the harbor, or go down to Winter Island and walk around on the beach, or sit on the benches at Salem Willows and enjoy the beautiful ancient trees overlooking the bay, or even hop in your car or on the bus and head towards Marblehead to visit the hidden treasure of Salem: Forest River Park and enjoy a walk on the waterfront overlooked by gorgeous, friendly trees and many seagulls. Whether you go to experience the beautiful natural sights, to window-shop downtown, or to get some great food, one thing you will be assured of: an eclectic group of people, ranging from the blue-collar “townies”, to the black-caped pagans, to the college students at Salem State, to the old Salem families, and the recently or not so recently immigrated, living and working in harmony and tolerance together in this unique city.
No matter what you do on Halloween… whether it’s to camp it up in Salem, participate in a Samhain ritual outside the beautiful autumn weather and reclaim your freedom of religion, spend a quiet day among the dead, or a loud night dancing—have fun, be safe, and be true to yourself!
About The Authors: Artemisia, Nicole, Maeve, Phoenix ShadowDancer, and Roisin are Keepers of the Moon. We meet twice a month to meet, discuss, act, and do ritual work in a safe, supportive atmosphere. Our goals are to facilitate spiritual growth, be spiritual resources to one another, and enact positive change in our lives and communities. These goals are strengthened through regular meetings, rituals, and celebrations, all which honor the Universal Feminine Divine. We are a group of women who believe in, practice, and foster an egalitarian society that is based on tolerance, wisdom, compassion and respect.

Lighten Up – You Might be Giving Pagans a Bad Name If…

by Cather “Catalyst” Steincamp

 

You Might be Giving Pagans a Bad Name If…

You insist that your boss call you “Rowan Starchild” because otherwise you’d sue for religious harassment. (Score double for this if you don’t let that patronizing dastard call you “Mr. or Ms. Starchild.”)

You request Samhain, Beltaine, and Yule off and then gripe about working Christmas.

You expect your employer to exempt you from the random drug testing because of your religion.

You think the number of Wiccan books you own is far more important than the number you have read, regardless of the fact that most of your books are for beginners.

You’ve won an argument by referencing “Drawing Down the Moon,” knowing darned good and well they haven’t read it either.

You said it was bigotry when they didn’t let you do that ritual in front of city hall. It had nothing to do with the skyclad bit.

You picketed The Craft and Hocus Pocus, but thought that the losers who picketed The Last Temptation of Christ needed to get lives.

You’ve ever had to go along with someone’s ludicrous story because it was twice as likely to be true than most of the nonsense you spout.

You complain about how much the Native Americans copied from Eclectic Wiccan Rites.

You’ve ever referenced the Great Rite in a pick-up line.

Someone has had to point out to you that you do not enter a circle “in perfect love and perfect lust.” (Score double if you argued the point.)

You claim yourself as a witch because how early you were trained by the wise and powerful such-and-such of whom nobody has heard.

You claim to be a famtrad (hereditary), but you’re not. (Score double if you had to tell people you were adopted to pull this off.)

You claim to be a descendant of one of the original Salem Witches. (Score to a lethal degree if you don’t get this one.)

You think it’s perfectly reasonable to insist that, since every tradition is different, and no one tradition is right, there’s no reason not to do things your way.

You’ve ever been psychically attacked by someone who conveniently held a coven position you crave, and suddenly had a glimpse into their mind so you could see how evil they were.

You’ve ever affected an Irish or Scottish accent and insisted that it was real.

You think it’s your Pagan Duty to support the IRA, not because of any political beliefs you might share, but because, dammit, they’re Irish.

You talk to your invisible guardians in public. (Score double if you have met the Vampire Lestat or Dracula, triple if you got into a fight and escaped, or quadruple if it was no contest.)

You’ve ever confused the Prime Directive with the Wiccan Rede.

You’ve ever tried something you saw on “Sabrina, The Teenage Witch”

You’ve suddenly realized in the middle of a ritual that you weren’t playing D&D.

You’ve failed to realize at any point in the ritual that you weren’t playing D&D.

You’ve suddenly realized that you are playing D&D.

You hang out with people who each match at least fifteen of these traits.

You recognize many of these traits in yourself, but this test isn’t about you. But, boy, it’s right about those other folks.

So Many Questions and Ideas…

So Many Questions and Ideas…

Author: Divine Witch

I have decided to be a witch. Well, I think I have. For the past three years I have been going back and forth with the infatuation with Wicca and Witchcraft. But really it started before that. As a child, I wondered about Voodoo or Black Magic. My grandmother was afraid of it. She would tell me not to let people play in my hair because they could use the hair strand to put a curse on me. Also, she didn’t like me giving pictures out to friends for the same reason. I always thought she was a bit paranoid about the whole thing. So I grew up with that and for that reason I never really heard about good witches, the ones that practice good or white magic. Except maybe the ones in fairy tales or Disney. But we all know that stuff is a joke anyway.

Of course for Halloween, kids dressed as Witches, Wizards and things of that nature. I was a Witch quite a few times. My granny (yes the same one) even made me a witch costume from scratch one year. Then when I was about thirteen, I got invited to a Halloween party last minute and had nothing to wear. So my aunt made me into a Gypsy.

I had no idea what a Gypsy was at the time. But it was fun being dressed up in all of the jewelry and other things she put on me. I don’t remember everything I had on but I do remember it was fun, and that she went a little overboard. Damn, I wish I had a picture. So really, that’s all I got about Witches and stuff like that. I always assumed it was just fairy tale Disney stuff and that it was never really real.

Then when I became an adult I had an older boyfriend who swore his last girlfriend and well as another did Voodoo on him. He would tell me stories on what happened to him. Now I’m not saying that Voodoo is nonsense or that it doesn’t exist but sometimes he was a little dramatic also. So even though I partly believed him, I was becoming more interested about it by this time.

In 2000, I took a Tarot reading class and ended up buying two decks of cards. One I actually used and the other for was more for collection purposes. Still have them I believe. After my youngest son was born in 2001, I used the deck to do readings on myself, mostly for practice. Since I wasn’t really good about reading due to lack of experience, I didn’t really understand what I was getting. But I wrote it down to see if it would make sense later. And sometimes it did. Years went on and I would be touch and go with things; I wore an Amethyst pendant around my neck or maybe I would carry a “good luck charm” in my purse from time to time.

Then in 2007 it happened. By this time I was heavy into Native American studies and culture (still am as that is my heritage) and was looking to connect more with Natives. I ran into a lady on a Native American news/culture/events website and she told me about a retreat that is held every year in June. I received more information about it and wanted to go. So I went and found about Goddess worshiping and the moon cycles, and loads of other stuff I never really thought about. Oh, and I participated in a sweat lodge too. Wore me out but it was a nice experience. But the whole three days was an eye opener for me. It was full of women, regular women like myself that were Witches.

I went home with my head spinning and swimming with ideas and thoughts. I never knew there were publications catered to the Goddess or Witches. I never really heard of Wicca either. All I heard about was the negative stuff. So I bought Scott Cunningham books and Sage Woman magazines. Then I started purchasing candles, athames, seashells for incense burning and other things for my altar. And I really wanted to work with herbs. I even wanted to grow my own herbs for magickal purposes.

Then I would practice. Or try to. I could not concentrate. For one, I was waiting on one of my kids to get out of bed and disturb me, or the phone to ring or whatever. My brain would never shut up, that didn’t help either. So I grew frustrated and walked away from it. Well, not entirely. I would still pick up a Sage Woman magazine every so often or read about the Salem Witch Trials. But then it was hard because school kept me busy and I really couldn’t dedicate myself to it.

And now here I am again with all of this time gone by and still basically at square one. I know so much but still know so little, feeling just as lost as before. So now I do have a couple of friends that I could get insight from but one lives in Canada and the other does not practice really anymore either. So in between being uneducated and being in an area where witchcraft is taboo I am stuck. And I don’t like being stuck.

So you’re probably asking was is the point of all of this? Well, it’s really because I need some help. And maybe I felt that I needed to say this and I has helped me realized some my problems too. One of the reasons I felt I could not concentrate is I still have some stigmatizing behavior and thinking to take care of. And I also realized that I am more passionate about Witchcraft and root work. Go figure, huh?

So now I need to find someone or something to help me on that path while working with the stigma and other things as well. But how do I get over that? How long is it going to take before I feel like a real Witch? But hey, I’m getting there. As a kid I never thought it would come to this.

Slowly but surely.

Middle Age Witchcraft

Middle Age Witchcraft
 
 

During the early Middle Ages, the early Christian Church didn’t focus on witches or witchcraft. The Council of Paderborn in 785 explicitly outlawed the belief in witches, and Saint Boniface declared in the 8th century that a belief in the existence of witches was unchristian altogether. The Emperor Charlemagne decreed that burning a witch was actually a pagan custom, and anyone caught doing it would be punished by death. In 820 the Bishop of Lyon and others declared that witches could not fly or make brooms fly, could not make bad weather, nor change their shape. The idea that people could do these things, were deemed fanciful tales of mythology. The decree was accepted into Church law. King Coloman of Hungary declared that witches do not exist, and therefore witch-hunts were not necessary. Many other rulers of his day followed suit and the witch-hunts ceased for a while. These non-existent concepts lasted until the late 12th century. And the first medieval trials against witches occurs in the 13th century with the establishment of the Inquisition. The Church was actually concentrating on the persecution of heresy. But witchcraft, either real or just alleged, was treated as any other sort of heresy. It’s also at this time where we see the label Witchcraft applied broadly to pagan beliefs and practices. No longer does it become a label for a craft or practice, but as a title or label for a set of spiritual beliefs. Witchcraft becomes the title of a religion, with many varying practices. And it’s here where many today claim the label for their religious practice.

 

Today, Witchcraft can be defined as:

 

A neo-pagan religion that is further defined and put into practice by it’s many sects, such as Wicca, Deborean Wicca, Strega, Pictish and others.

 

The European witch-hunts reach their pinnacle around 1450. No longer is it a theological campaign for the church, but a phenomenon that resembles mass hysteria and fear. The classical attributes of a witch, casting negative spells to control others, flying on brooms, intercourse with the Devil, and meeting with demons and other witches at sabbats, became descriptive fact in Canon Law around 1400. Conspiracy theories begin to form; stating that witches use their sabbat rituals and underground movements as a means of plotting to overthrow Christianity. The church and monarchies see this as a war upon their authority and control to be weeded out and destroyed. The lands of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as Scotland were all affected by the trials. 29 editions of The “Malleus Maleficarum” were reprinted between 1487 and 1669, even though the book was condemned by the Catholic Church in 1490. It was continually used by secular witch-hunting courts to condemn and prosecute accused witches. Intellectuals spoke out against the trials from the late 16th century. Not even then elite society could keep themselves or their family members out of the witch jails. Johannes Kepler in 1615 used his prestige to keep his mother from being burnt as a witch. The 1692 Salem witch trials exploded even though the practice of witch trials was declining in Europe. During the Early Modern Period the concern over witchcraft reaches the boiling point. There are many thoughts as to why the trials began. That they were more about the desire of the Church and current Monarchies to gain or maintain control over the citizenry. It’s interesting to note that most of the witch trials that ended in convictions took place in rural areas with a 90% conviction rate. Another interesting statistic is how the highest concentration of trials took place along the borders of France, Germany, and Italy, in what is now modern day Switzerland. Some areas, such as Britain (with the exception of some notable trials in Scotland) saw fewer trials, but were still extensive. And some point to Spain as holding the largest portion of trials and executions. There were early trials in the 15th and early 16th century, but then the witch scare went into decline, before becoming a big issue again and in the 17th century. The practiced declined some say in part to other more weighty concerns placed before the Church and Monarchies. Others say it declined out of fear of reprisals. And still others claim it’s a combination of these reasons, and the increased practiced of Witchcraft sects to go underground and hide their beliefs and practices. There are many traditions who make the claim that their early practioners migrated away from these witch-hunt areas to escape persecution and continue their beliefs and practices. While others make claims of going underground into secret societies. Though there is no unequivocal evidence of secret pagan societies or migrations; we can learn from history how persecutions do indeed force people to flee or live in secrecy.

 

What is an Animal Familiar?

What is an Animal Familiar?

By Patti Wigington

The black cat was the traditional witch’s familiar, but some people connect better with other animals.

In some traditions of modern Wicca and Paganism, the concept of an animal familiar is incorporated into practice. Today, a familiar is often defined as an animal with whom we have a magical connection, but in truth, the concept is a bit more complex than this.

History of the Familiar

During the days of the European witch hunts, familiars were “said to be given to witches by the devil,” according to Rosemary Guiley’s Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft. They were, in essence, small demons which could be sent out to do a witch’s bidding. Although cats — especially black ones — were the favored vessel for such a demon to inhabit, dogs, toads, and other small animals were sometimes used.

In some Scandinavian countries, familiars were associated with spirits of the land and nature. Fairies, dwarves, and other elemental beings were believed to inhabit the physical bodies of animals. Once the Christian church came along, this practice went underground — because any spirit other than an angel must be a demon. During the witch-hunt era, many domestic animals were killed because of their association with known witches and heretics.

During the Salem witch trials, there is little account of the practice of animal familiars, although one man was charged with encouraging a dog to attack by way of magical means. The dog, interestingly enough, was tried, convicted, and hanged.

In shamanistic practices, the animal familiar is not a physical being at all, but a thought-form or spiritual entity. It often travels astrally, or serves as a magical guardian against those who might try to psychically attack the shaman.

Today, many Wiccans and Pagans have an animal companion that they consider their familiar – and most people no longer believe that these are spirits or demons inhabiting an animal. Instead, they have an emotional and psychic bond with the cat, dog, or whatever, who is attuned to the powers of its human partner.

Finding a Familiar

Not everyone has, needs, or even wants a familiar. If you have an animal companion as a pet, such as a cat or dog, try working on strengthening your psychic connection with that animal. Books such as Ted Andrews’ Animal Speak contain some excellent pointers on how to do this.

If an animal has appeared in your life unexpectedly — such as a stray cat that appears regularly, for instance — it’s possible that it may have been drawn to you psychically. However, be sure to rule out mundane reasons for its appearance first. If you’re leaving out food for the local feral kitties, that’s a far more logical explanation. Likewise, if you see a sudden influx of birds, consider the season — is the ground thawing, making food more available?

If you’d like to draw a familiar to you, some traditions believe you can do this by meditation. Find a quiet place to sit undisturbed, and allow your mind to wander. As you journey, you may encounter various people or objects. Focus your intent on meeting an animal companion, and see if you come into contact with any.

In addition to familiars, some people do magical work with what’s called a power animal or a spirit animal. A power animal is a spiritual guardian that some people connect with. However, much like other spiritual entities, there’s no rule or guideline that says you must have one. If you happen to connect with an animal entity while meditating or performing astral travel, then that may be your power animal… or it may just be curious about what you’re up to.

In The News……Haunted Happenings in Salem

Massachusetts town famous for its 1692 witch trials is the busiest Halloween tourist destination in North America

 
By DAVID JOHNSTON, The GazetteOctober 15, 2011
 
 

The busiest Halloween tourist destination in North America has no shortage of costumed ghosts and goblins wandering through town in the weeks before the arrival of the witching hours of Halloween night Oct. 31.

But there was nothing theatrical about the shock and the horror that gripped the seaside Massachusetts town of Salem in 1692, when 20 local residents were accused of witchcraft and put to death after the infamous Salem witch trials.

Ever since then, witch hunts in various shapes and forms have been a recurring metaphor in U.S. society. When Arthur Miller based his 1952 play The Crucible on the events of 1692, it was seen as an allegory for the anti-Communist fear and hysteria that was sweeping the United States at the time.

The historical and cultural backdrop to the Salem witch trials is a subject that is exhaustively interpreted by the many different niche museums in Salem devoted to this grim chapter in early U.S. history.

But the witch trials have also given rise, more than three centuries later, to a busy local tourist industry revolving around witchcraft in general, one that peaks in October with an annual Halloween festival, Haunted Happenings that attracts more than 200,000 people. (hauntedhappenings.org/)

The month-long celebration features parades, costume balls, various children’s events and witch-themed activities ranging from light fun to serious exploration of the world of witchcraft past and present. These activities include Ask a Witch – Make a Wand, a weekend event hosted by the local Witches Education League, where the public gets to ask questions of women and men who are self-described witches.

The Witches Education League is an outreach organization that reflects the demographic reality of Salem, a city north of Boston with a population of 38,000 where 2,000 people describe themselves as witches. Some are formally affiliated with the worldwide religious movement of Wicca, while others are known locally for their commercial profile. The commercialism is evident along the downtown Essex St. pedestrian mall where stores like Omen or Bewitched in Salem sell witch-themed products, but also conduct crystal-ball readings and seances, and give workshops in witchcraft magic.

The best way to see Salem is to start out by taking the Salem Trolley tour of the downtown area. It begins in the city’s fascinating old port district, the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, and then loops back from there into the downtown area, pointing out places of special interest relating to the Salem witch trials, and to architectural history as well.

The spiritual centre of Salem’s tourist industry is the Salem Witch Memorial, inaugurated in 1992 by Nobel Laureate Eli Wiesel. It’s a little garden bounded on three sides by a low stone wall. Embedded into the interior sides of the wall are 20 stone benches, each one bearing the name, date and method of execution of one of the 20 people put to death in 1692.

Not to be missed is the Salem Witch Museum, which tells the story of the witch trials using special sets, and life-size figures in a darkened auditorium, and then projects forward in time in connecting rooms to show how outbreaks of mass fear and intolerance have been a recurring theme in U.S. history.

The narrator of the auditorium show explains how the early Puritan settlers of Salem lived with a variety of overlapping fears that induced a form of paranoia. There was fear of their colonial charter being revoked, of Indian raids, of smallpox, of crop failure. Most of all, there was fear of the Devil, as common belief among the Puritans held that the Devil had come to New England to undo God’s new Kingdom – even creaky floors suggested the Devil’s presence.

And so when a group of local girls in Salem in 1692 started going into hysterical fits and accusing fellow citizens of having bewitched them, the underlying conditions were already in place to produce a witch hunt. Family feuds over property rights were also a contributing factor, and those forced Salem’s 550 residents to take sides during the witch trials.

Today, of course, Salem is a much different place. It is a busy northern Boston suburb, part of the metropolitan transit network. And so while Salem can be visited by commuter train as a day trip from Boston, Salem can also be used as a place to stay while visiting Boston more generally. Hotels are generally cheaper in Salem than in Boston.

The two main hotels in downtown Salem are the Hawthorne Hotel and the Salem Waterfront Hotel; there are also plenty of bed and breakfasts. The Salem Waterfront has an indoor pool and might be the better option for families with young children. The Hawthorne, built in 1925 when 1,000 local residents chipped in to buy shares to create a new “modern” hotel for the town, has a well-regarded local restaurant, Nathaniel’s (named after Nathaniel Hawthorne, a noted 19th-century Salem author), which serves up a famous apple-pumpkin bisque soup. Another renowned Salem edible delight is Gibraltar rock candy, which is sold at Ye Olde Pepper Compagnie, near Salem harbour. The store was founded in Salem in 1806 and is the oldest candy store in the U.S.

Short hops returns in mid-December with ideas for winter excursions.

IF YOU GO

To get to Salem from Montreal by car, drive as if you are going to Boston. That is to say, take Interstate 93 South. There are two ways to get to the 93 – either from Interstate 89 at the Philipsburg/ Highgate Springs, Vt., border crossing, or Interstate 91 from the Stanstead/Derby Line, Vt., crossing. As you approach Boston on the 93, take Exit 37A in order to get on Interstate 95 North. After a brief stint on the 95, take Route 128 North and Route 114 East into Salem. There are also air and bus options to Boston, but no direct rail link.

ANIMALS IN WITCHCRAFT

ANIMALS IN WITCHCRAFT

ANIMALS IN WITCHCRAFT-ANIMALS ON TRIAL

Witches and Cats

Locust on Trial

The Animals of Salem

The Animals of Finnish Witchtrials

The Trials of Familiars

Familiars of the Chelmesford witches
——————————————————————————–
——————————————————————————–
WITCHES AND CATS

“The rise of Christianity in Europe heralded a fundamental shift in attitudes to
cats. During the Middle Ages, the cat’s links with the ancient, pagan cult of
the mother goddess inspired a wave of persecution that lasted several hundred
years. Branded as agents of the Devil, and the chosen companions of witches and
necromancers, cats, especially black ones, were enthusiastically tortured and
executed during Christian festivals all over Europe. It was also believed that
witches disguised themselves as cats as a means of traveling around incognito,
so anyone encountering a stray cat at night felt obliged to try and kill or maim
the animal. By teaching people to associate cats with the Devil and bad luck,
it appears that the Church provided the underprivileged and superstitious masses
with a sort of universal scapegoat, something to blame for all of the many
hardships and misfortunes of life. Fortunately for cats, such attitudes began
to disappear gradually during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the
dawn of the so-called Age of Enlightenment. However, not until the middle of
the nineteenth century did cats eventually begin to regain the popularity they
once enjoyed in Ancient Egypt.”

********************************************************************

LOCUST ON TRIAL

The discussion so far has put me in mind of a terrific book I once read on
European animal trials, which were conducted up until I think the 17th century.
One example especially pertinent to the topic at hand: if a plague of
caterpillars or locusts or whatever infested an area, the local legal community
would put the swarm on trial. A locust would be captured and taken to the
courthouse. It would become the “defendant” , and would in effect stand-in for
the whole swarm. The trial would be conducted with all pomp and circumstance,
with a lawyer appointed to represent the swarm and etc. There were a number of
standard defensive strategies, and sometimes the swarm was even judged innocent
if their lawyer was especially able. If judged guilty, however, the locusts
were ordered to get out of town. If the infestation abated, the trial was given
credit. If the infestation continued, this does not appear to have been seen as
an argument against conducting animal trials in the future. I trust the
resemblance to the raindance ceremony is fairly clear here.

The author of the book (I cannot recall the title or author; I remember that it
was published in the early 1900s and the cover shows a reproduction of an old
print, portraying the public execution of a pig by hanging) argues that such
trials are an attempt by the human community to intervene in the natural order,
to exert its will over the world. I think this is a pretty insightful comment.

“Exerting human will over the world” could serve as a definition of the goal
of science. Bacon sometimes describes science as the human “conquest” of
nature, and certainly many modern critiques of science (feminist, for example)
have taken this to be the self-defined goal of scientific inquiry. I’m not
arguing for the ultimate truth of this particular position, but on the other
hand if you look at things along these lines than certain aspects of religious
and scientific thought seem to be closely related, at least in their purpose.
Bacon’s studies of heat are supposed to yield a (universal) process for making
heat, the shaman leading a raindance is trying to make it rain, the animal trial
is an attempt to bring the plague to an end etc.

Note that the various rituals used for bringing about these interventions don’t
have to work very well in each case for the ritual to be accepted within the
community. The community may simply accept that human powers are limited in
what they can accomplish. I believe that within alchemical studies this was a
common view; even if all the processes were carried out correctly, you might
still not create gold from lead or whatever, and in fact usually would not.
Note also that the ritual might have multiple functions within the community.
The rain-dance both be used for bringing rain and bringing about group
solidarity. These are not mutually exclusive. Again, I have read something
similar with respect to alchemical procedures; that the alchemist “purifying”
metals with his various tools is also going through a process of spiritual
purification. And certainly the animal trial, even if it does not drive out the
infestation, makes the community feel better. The community is “doing
something” about its situation, even if its acts are ineffective.

I also like the animal trial example because it muddies the waters here in
interesting ways. The conversation to date has concerned itself with
comparing/contrasting religious/scientific thought. Yet here we see legal
institutions using their procedures in a way that suggests a religious ritual.
Conversations on the distinctions/similarities between legal and religious
thought, and legal and scientific thought, would also be good to have.

************************************************************
THE ANIMALS OF SALEM

Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 by Bernard Rosenthal Cambridge
University Press 1993

p.18 John Hughes, while testifying about seeing beast transform into Sarah
Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, also mentions that on March 2 “a great white
dog followed him and then disappeared, and then that night in bed he saw a great
light and a cat at the foot of his bed.” (from Narratives of the WC Cases 1648-
1706 ed. G. LO. Burr)

p.21 Tituba’s testimony included many animals…black dog/hog/man/yellow bird
told her to serve him; yellow bird was accompanying Sarah Good (who had already
given accusers legitimacy); also said she saw a cat with Good on other occasions

p.22 T. saw 2 cats, black and red. “What did the cats do? Tituba did not
know. Had the cats hurt or threatened her? They had scratched her. What had
they wanted of her? They had wanted her to hurt the children. They had forced
her to pinch the children. Did the cats suck Tituba? No, she would not let
them.”

p.82 Bridget Bishop (owner of shuffle-board and cider teenage hangout) was
testified against by Wonn, slave of John Ingerson. He “told a story of
frightened horses, the vanishing shape of B.B. (at the time B. Oliver), the
appearance of an unknown cat, and mysterious pinchings and pain.”

p.124 Martha Carrier: 7 yr. old daughter Sarah was induced to confess that “a
cat, identifying itself as M. C., had carried Sarah along to afflict people when
her mother was in prison.”

**********************************************************

THE ANIMALS OF FINNISH WITCHTRIALS

I have studied over 1200 finish witch trials 1520-1700 (with PD Marko Nenonen)
and there is a certain role of animals. “Para” was a small “cat-like” animal,
used to steal milk and a butter called cow lucky especially in swedish
speaking west coast in Finland. The “Para” was not found out by judges, but it
had a long folk tradition. There are many examples where a neighboug was
accusing another by stealing “butter lucky” with “para”.

“Para” is just the same “trollcat” as it was in Sweden and Norway. You can
find “Para” in court protocolls in western part (Swedish speaking part) in
Finland (1520-1600), but not in finnish speaking parts on the country. So
“Para” can’t be shamanistic (Lappland) phenomenom, but it surely is known all
parts of Scandinavia.

As time goes, You could find “Para” in finnish speaking areas too, but in in
1500-1700. So we have learned it from swedish speaking people.

But, as we are dealing with animals, you can find other animals than “trollcat”
too. We have cases with “trolldog” which I mean the Devil with a shape of a
dog. Some of our accused had meet the devil with a shape of a dog (and a coat).

We have at least one case with a “metapmorphose”, where people have been accused
of being “werewolves”. In Estonia the tradition of those being wolves in night
time was strong. There were many cases like that.

I think, the idea of “trollcats” is not shamanistic, it is surely
Scandinavian!

There is quite a lot of articles abou “Para” (Trollcat) but only few of them
would be available in english.

But, there is one point we have to keep in mind. People were ACCUSED of having
“Para” and they were CONVICTED to using witchcraft, but they were never
CONVICTED TO HAVING PARA! The matter of trial was not, is there really
animal shaped “butter stealing” para, but it was a question of practicing
witchcraft or superstition!

In Scandinavia we have very old “lore”, written by one historian about
1200-1300, were a man was killed by “Mara” (bad dream animal?) because he had
not kept his promise to his Finnish wife.

Another instance of using “para”, other than trying have luck in stealing
butter, was a “Finnish way” to use a bear as a helper for killing someone’s
cattle. People believed that some (almost always a man) people had ability to
force bears to kill enemy’s horse or cattle. But I have no idea, if the
bear wanted some price of it’s doings (nourishment or protection).

Even in the oldest witch trials (before people had any idea about satanistic
pact with devil) witches were believed to use some animals as a helper of their
maleficium. So, this belief must be older than the christian theory of pact.

The bear cases seems to be common way to do harm among finnish speaking
people. In some rare cases the helper was a wolf. In some cases (1670s) the
helper was a dog, but it seems that the dog was not really an animal, but it was
a Devil with a shape of a dog.

Some ladies used cows (or even a pig) to ride to “Bl=E5kulla” (the Sabbath),
but those animals were usually “borrowed” for some neighbour and they
were not acting like a helper – they were forced to do so.

Lapplanders who had long shaman traditions used to use “animal spirit
helpers” to do things, but they were not accused of forcing real animals to do
any harm, as far as I know.

There is one big difference between using a “Para” and a bear. “Para” was
supernatural familiar, but bears were really acting animals whom could be
seen. Damage made by para was a loss of butter or milk lucky, but a damage made
by bear was real. Anyone could see the damage.

In some cases there was so called “tonttu” (tomptegubben or rgubbe in
swedish). They were not used as helpers, but You should give them some
presents for getting rid of harms they could do. People believed, that
“tonttu” was living in particular place and people living in same area were
disturbing the tonttu. So You had to do something to keep tonttu in good
mood. Tonttu was spiritual, because no one had never catch one. Tonttu was
not an animal, but small human kind of creature.

Then there was “Nekki” or “Nacken”. It was a creature living in lakes and
killing people by taking them under the water. Nekki was not a real animal and
it did not acted like a helper for anyone – it did what it wanted to do.

First little more about “para”. The belief of “para” helping to steal cows
must be very old, because in one finnish church there is a painting of para.
The painting is older than the belief that a Witch have a pact with the devil,
the devil then giving a “spiritum” to a helper for the witch (This belief
was not known in Finland until 1660s.)

Secondly, I think too, that a witch-hare (para)is common in Sweden. Probably
Finnish speaking people have borrowed in from Sweden, because there are
no witch-hares in our oldest mythology as far as I know. The witch-hare (para)
was mentioned in trials some times in the Swedish speaking area of Finland
(west coast), but not in Finnish speaking Karelia, suggesting it is borrowed.

Thirdly, I have to check my papers to find out is there any “pet
connection” in finnish witch trials, but without doing so I can’t remember
any cases where pet animals had some part of being helpers and neither did PhD
Marko Nenonen as we discussed today.

But I could find at least one case where a man was killed by his own dog. The
victim, Antti Yrjonpoika Paivikainen, was a customer of famous witch Antti
Lieroinen who did all kinds of maleficium for salary. After their contact
Paivikainen was found dead and the cause for that was his own dog. So
Lieroinen was thought to cause the death by using victim’s own dog to kill
him. This was not proved, but Lieroinen was executed for other witchcraft
he had done. This happend in 1643.

Fourthly, 27.3.1641 witch Erkki Juhonpoika Puujumala (“Treegod”) was convicted
in Turku Supreme Court. He was sentenced to death for many reasons – for
killing people with witchcraft etc. He has had an arguement with other
people and he had said that he was going change those people into wolves with
his maleficium. This was not proved to happen, but it was one prosecution among
many. By the way, Treegod said that he was 120 years old.

Fifthly, we have some cases where a witch has used a snake to do some crime.
One witch argued with his wife and then separated. Later that ex-wife get
pregnant from a snake, and later gave birth to some snakes. In one another
case the snake had gone inside of a woman (and they used a lappish healer to
try to get it out).

Snakes had also a strong part of shamanism, but I don’t know what really was
the function of shamans snake-shape belongings(??instruments??). Finnish
folkloristics seem to believe that the snake was for the shamans protection.

We had few cases where a snake’s head was used by magical meanings.

Sixthly, in 1732 court was dealing with a case, where Lauri
Heikinpoika Tervo accused his neighbor “of sending a bird with fire on its
head (nose)” to burn his house, which burned. Due to losses of protocols, we
don’t know how the case was handled, but I’m sure the court did not find
neighbor guilty. Birds have been known to used to carry fire in saami
tradition (says finnish folklorist Aune Nystrom).

Seventhly, we have found one case where a woman gave birth to some frogs, and
one case where a frog was put in a box and buried inside of a church. The box
was just like those boxes they used with human bodies.

Eigth, we have a case where they used a fish to heal sick person. The idea was
that the “Grande mal” (falling sickness) would be moved from people to fish.
So they did it, but unfortunately one innocent person touched the fish and
got himself sick. And of course the sickness was grande mal.

Ninth, I have a strong feeling, that finnish courts did not tried to found out
if the accused had animal helper or not. The law mentioned nothing about
animal imps or spirituals, so they were not needed as evidence. Maleficium
was maleficium and it could be proofed without any animal helpers or spirits.

10th According the old folk tradition the bear will not harm the cattle if
one takes a blind puppy dog and buries it with some rites in the land on area,
where the bear lives. But I have no evidence that this has ever been done.

11th In Finland was believed, that milking others cow, would steal not only
the milk but the further milk lucky too. I think this believe is common in
whole Scandinavia.

12th A bear could be sent to harm neighbour’s cattle. But at least in one
case (1746) shows, that it could also to sent back to harm the original witch.

13th I have no reason to believe that the animal (exept the bear or wolf
sended to do harm) were real ones. If it was so that the helpers were
real pets, why they did not execute the pets too?

I think that the judges has sent the animals to death as they did with cases
where humans had sexual intercourse with animal. They executed both! One
reason to not to do so could be, that the animal was not “guilty” for anything
because it could not differ the right and the wrong from each other. But so
did the raped animal neither.

14th The worms. At least in one case the witch used worms to destroy a pig. He
used some magical technique and the victims pig get “full of worms” as they
found out when they slaughtered the sick pig. Worms could be sent to a human
being too.

15th The lycanthropy. Werewolves had no part of finnish trials, but they had
one in Estonia. Why? The Finnish people have common roots with Estonian
people and our languages are still guite similar. Our oldest pre-christian
religion is common, and there is no werewolves in that tradition, as
far as I know. So, where the estonians got the idea about werewolves? I
think that they have adopted it from germans. Estonia has been under
strong german influence, but Finland hasn’t. So, I believe, that they must
have copied the idea from German “Werewolffe”.

According Maia Madar (Estonia I: Werewolves and poisoners, in Early Modern
European Witchcraft ed. Bengt Ankarloo and Gustav Henningsen,
Clarendon Press, Oxford 1990).

“Belief in werewolves was widespread. At eighteen trials, eighteen women and
thirteen men were accused of causing damage while werewolves. At Meremoisa
1623, the defendant Ann testified that she had been a werewolf for four
years, and had killed a horse as well as some smaller animals. She had later
hidden the wolf skin under a stone in the fields.” (page 270)

Maia Madar tells other examples, too. And in one case where 18-year old Hans
had confessed that he had hunted as a werewolf for two years, “when asked
by the judges if his body took part in the hunt, or if only his soul was
transmuted, Hans confirmed that he had found a dog’s teeth-marks on his own
leg, which he had received while a werewolf. Further asked wether he felt
himself to be a man or a beast while transmuted, he told that he felt
himself to be beast.” (page 271)

Madar writes: “It was acknowledged that people could be transmuted not only
into werewolves, but also into bears.”

So as a lawyer I must ask why they were confessing that they were hunting as
werewolves in Estonia. The answer must be torture. Torture was widely
used in Estonia ecen it was under the Swedish jurisdiction, where torture was
forbidden.

16th The devil in a shape of a dog. All over the Scandinavia we had trials
where the accused said, that the devil they’ve met had a shape of a dog. Why
the dog? Danish witchhistorian Jens Christian V. Johanssen writes (in book
mentioned above), that the popular culture (peoples believes) borrowed ideas
for wall-paintings in the church.

“In Ejsing church, Christ is tempted in the desert by the devil – in the shape
of a ferocious-looking dog! Popular imagination was so vivid that on given
occasions the devil came to take his form”. (Johansen: Denmark: The
Sociology of Accusations in Early Modern European Witchcraft.. page 363-364).

Well, so and so. But surely the popular culture appointed ideas from elite’s
culture.

17th The shamanism. I have not specialised about shamanism, so I’ll now follow
the ideas that finnish shamanism expert Anna-Leena Siikala writes in her
book “Suomalainen samanismi” (Finnis Shamanism), Hameenlinna 1992.

Siikala writes about moving the demon from someone to another. In finnish
folklore it is usuall to remove a disease from patient to an animal or some
idol, like wooden puppet. This is common between Middle- and East-Siperia
shaman too. She remind, that even Jesus removed demon from a man to some
pigs. (page 187)

There is information about this kind of “removing” in German and Estonia
too. In Finland this was usually done by soothsaying, but this was not
common in Middle-Europe or Scandinavia.

Siikala guesses, that this habit has very old shamanistic roots and that the
churhes middle-age tradition has forced this old religion. (pages 188-189)

In these cases animals are shamans helpers and they carry the evil demon
away. Shamans (spiritual) animal helpers are also spyes, Shaman can send
them far away to collect information what is happening. Helpres also
carry the information from here to the “heaven”. “Because shamans helper
animal do not only to take the disease to themselves, but carry it to
“heaven” (or “to the other side” as shamans say), they are=20 not usuall
(real) animals” (page 191).

Siikkala says, that middle age church adopted these old ideas and they used
the idea to their rituals (to carry out demons).

Shamans used to call their helpers for instance by singing (and using the drum).
In my opinion it is surely understandable that shaman was all the time
demonstrating to the audience, that he has very important helpers.

The shaman uses his helpers to fight agains other shamans helpers, too. So
when shaman is healing a patent, he first find’s out where the disease has
become, and then force it to go back. If the disease is caused by demon, you
have to fight against demon. If it is caused by other shaman with his helpers,
so the helpers must fight together. (as Carlo Ginzburg’s “benandati” did).

The idea about shamans fighting together is old and it is common in Northern-
Asia, too. In Siperia tradition the fighning shamans could take a shape of
animals.

But I could not find any reason to believe that the helper animals were real
animals in Siikalas book either.

According to Joan’s Witch Pages they executed a dog in Salem Witch trials.
This is something I had not pointed out earlier. If they really executed the
dog, so I’ll have to reuse my argument: why they did not executed other
suspected “pets” too (if the “pet theory” is right)?

************************************************************

THE TRIALS OF FAMILIARS

One reason why they may not have executed pets is because the law assumed
that these creatures were supernatural beings – by definition. If the animals
had been captured, brought to court, examined by authorities, etc., it
would have been difficult to avoid the conclusion that the witch’s cat or dog
was, in fact, no different from any other cat or dog. In addition, according
to folklore, these animals could not be killed by ordinary means because they
were spirits. We have found one account, for example, of a suspected familiar (a
poodle dog called Boye, belonging to Prince Rupert) being killed by a silver
bullet fired by a ‘soldier skilled in necromancy’ at the battle of Marston
Moor in 1642. Also, perhaps it was assumed that the familiars would perish as
soon as the witch was executed, since they were assumed to depend on
her/him for nourishment (coincidently, of course, the animals probably didn’t
survive for long once their owners were incarcerated and executed). However,
I agree with you that the fate of these animals is somewhat mysterious. My
guess would be that the witch’s neighbours dealt with them swiftly and
discretely, but I have no evidence either way. I wasn’t aware of the Salem dog
execution but will now look into this. In the bestiality trials, the animals
were not generally executed as criminals. Rather they seem to have been
regarded as polluted creatures which might have a corrupting influence on public
morality if allowed to remain alive. Thus, there was a particular incentive to
identify these (real) animals and kill them.

——————————————————————————–

“Witch”

“Witch”

 

The Random House College Dictionary derived “witch” from medieval English wicche, formerly Anglo-Saxon wicca (masculine), or wicce (feminine): a corruption of witga, short form of witega, a seer or diviner; from Anglo-Saxon witan, to see, to know. Similarly, Icelandic vitki, a witch, came from vita, to know; or vizkr, clever or knowing one. Wizard came from Norman French wischard. Old French guiscart, sagacious one. The surname Whittaker came from Witakarlege, a Wizard or a Witch. The words “wit” and “wisdom” came from the same roots.

There were many other words for witches, such as Incantatrix, Lamia, Saga, Maga, Malefica, Sortilega, Strix, Venefica. In Italy a witch was a strega or Janara, an old title of a priestess of Jana (Juno). English writers called witches both “hags” and “fairies,” words which were once synonymous. Witches had metaphoric titles: bacularia, “stick-rider”; fascinatrix, “one with the evil eye”; herberia, “one who gathers herbs”; strix, “screech-owl”; pixidria, “keeper of an ointment-box”; femina saga, “wise-woman”; lamia, “night-monster”; incantator, “worker of charms”; magus, “wise-man”; sortiariae mulier, “seeress”; veneficia, “poisoner”; maliarda, “evil-doer.” Latin treatises called Witches anispex, auguris, divinator, januatica, ligator, mascara, phitonissa, stregula.

Dalmatian witches were krstaca, “crossed ones,” a derivative of the Greek Christos In Holland a witch was wijsseggher, “wise-sayer,” from which came the English “wiseacre.” The biblical passage that supported centuries of persecution, “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18), used the Hebrew word kasaph, translated “witch” although it means a seer or diviner.

Early medieval England had female clan-leaders who exercised matriarchal rights in lawgiving and law enforcement; the Magna Carta of Chester called them iudices de wich (judges who were witches). Female elders once had political power among the clans, but patriarchal religion and law gradually took it away from them and called them witches in order to dispose of them. In 1711. Addison observed that “When an old woman begins to doat and grow chargeable to a Parish, she is generally turned into a witch.”

Reginald Scot remarked that the fate of a witch might be directly proportional to her fortune. The pope made saints out of rich witches, but poor witches were burned. Among many examples tending to support this opinion was the famous French Chambre Ardente affair, which involved many members of the aristocracy and the upper-class clergy in a witch cult. Numerous male and female servants were tortured and burned for assisting their masters in working witchcraft; but in all the four years the affair dragged on, no noble person was tortured or executed.

Illogically enough, the authorities persecuted poor, outcast folk as witches, yet professed to believe witches could provide themselves with all the wealth anyone could want. Reginald Scot, a disbeliever, scornfully observed that witches were said to “transfer their neighbors’ corn into their own ground, and yet are perpetual beggars, and cannot enrich themselves, either with money or otherwise: who is so foolish as to remain longer in doubt of their supernatural powers?” Witchcraft brought so little profit to Helen Jenkenson of Northants, hanged in 1612 for bewitching a child, that the record of her execution said: “Thus ended this woman her miserable life, after she had lived many years poor, wretched, scorned and forsaken of the world.”

“Women which be commonly old, lame, blear-eyed, pale, foul, and full of wrinkles; poor, sullen, superstitious, and papists; or such as know no religion; in whose drowsy minds the devil hath gotten a fine seat; so as, what mischief, mischance, calamity, or slaughter is brought to pass, they are easily persuaded the same is done by themselves . . . They are lean and deformed, showing melancholy in their faces, to the horror of all that see them. They are doting, scolds, mad, devilish; and not much differing from them that are thought to be possessed with spirits.”

Persecutors said it was heretical to consider witches harmless. Even in England, where witches were not burned but hanged, some authorities fearfully cited the “received opinion” that a witch’s body should be burned to ashes to prevent ill effects arising from her blood. Churchmen assured the arresting officers that a witch’s power was lost the instant she was touched by an employee of the Inquisition; but the employees themselves were not so sure.

Numerous stories depict the persecutors’ fear of their victims. It was said in the Black Forest that a witch blew in her executioner’s face, promising him his reward; the next day he was afflicted with a fatal leprosy. Inquisitors’ handbooks directed them to wear at all times a bag of salt consecrated on Palm Sunday; to avoid looking in a witch’s eyes; and to cross themselves constantly in the witches’ prison. Peter of Berne forgot this precaution, and a captive witch by enchantment made him fall down a flight of stairs – which he proved later by torturing her until she confirmed it.

Numerous stories depict the persecutors’ fear of their victims. It was said in the Black Forest that a witch blew in her executioner’s face, promising him his reward; the next day he was afflicted with a fatal leprosy. Inquisitors’ handbooks directed them to wear at all times a bag of salt consecrated on Palm Sunday; to avoid looking in a witch’s eyes; and to cross themselves constantly in the witches’ prison. Peter of Berne forgot this precaution, and a captive witch by enchantment made him fall down a flight of stairs – which he proved later by torturing her until she confirmed it.

Numerous stories depict the persecutors’ fear of their victims. It was said in the Black Forest that a witch blew in her executioner’s face, promising him his reward; the next day he was afflicted with a fatal leprosy. Inquisitors’ handbooks directed them to wear at all times a bag of salt consecrated on Palm Sunday; to avoid looking in a witch’s eyes; and to cross themselves constantly in the witches’ prison. Peter of Berne forgot this precaution, and a captive witch by enchantment made him fall down a flight of stairs – which he proved later by torturing her until she confirmed it.

Any unusual ability in a woman instantly raised a charge of witchcraft. The so-called Witch of Newbury was murdered by a group of soldiers because she knew how to go “surfing” on the river. Soldiers of the Earl of Essex saw her doing it, and were “as much astonished as they could be,” seeing that “to and fro she fleeted on the board standing firm bolt upright . . . turning and winding it which way she pleased, making it pastime to her, as little thinking who perceived her tricks, or that she did imagine that they were the last she ever should show.” Most of the soldiers were afraid to touch her, but a few brave souls ambushed the board-rider as she came to shore, slashed her head, beat her, and shot her, leaving her “detested carcass to the worms.”

From ruthlessly organized persecutions on the continent, witch-hunts in England became largely cases of village feuds and petty spite. If crops failed, horses ran away, cattle sickened, wagons broke, women miscarried, or butter wouldn’t come in the churn, a witch was always found to blame. Marion Cumlaquoy of Orkney was burned in 1643 for turning herself three times widdershins, to make her neighbor’s barley crop rot. A tailor’s wife was executed for quarrelling with her neighbor, who afterward saw a snake on his property, and his children fell sick. One witch was condemned for arguing with a drunkard in an alehouse. After drinking himself into paroxysms of vomiting, he accused her of bewitching him, and he was believed.

A woman was convicted of witchcraft for having caused a neighbor’s lameness – by pulling off her stockings. Another was executed for having admired a neighbor’s baby, which afterward fell out of its cradle and died. Two Glasglow witches were hanged for treating a sick child, even though the treatment succeeded and the child was cured. Joan Cason of Kent went to the gallows in 1586 for having dry thatch on her roof. Her neighbor, whose child was sick, was told by an unidentified traveler that the child was bewitched, and it could be proved by stealing a bit of thatch from the witch’s roof and throwing it on the fire. If it crackled and sparked, witchcraft was assured. The test came out positive, and the court was satisfied enough to convict poor Joan.

Witches were convenient scapegoats for doctors who failed to cure their patients, for it was the “received” belief that witch-caused illnesses were incurable. Weyer said, “Ignorant and clumsy physicians blame all sicknesses which they are unable to cure or which they have treated wrongly, on witchery.” There were also priests and monks who “claim to understand the healing art and they lie to those who seek help that their sicknesses are derived from witchery.” Most real witch persecutions reflect “no erotic orgies, no Sabbats or elaborate rituals; merely the hatreds and spites of narrow peasant life assisted by vicious laws.”

Witches provided a focus for sexist hatred in male-dominated society, as one writer pointed out:

“The spirit of the Church in its contempt for women, as shown in the Scriptures, in Paul’s epistles and the Pentateuch, the hatred of the fathers, manifested in their ecclesiastical canons, and in the doctrines of asceticism, celibacy, and witchcraft, destroyed man’s respect for woman and legalized the burning, drowning, and torturing of women . . . “Women and their duties became objects of hatred to the Christian missionaries and of alternate scorn and fear to pious ascetics and monks. The priestess mother became something impure, associated with the devil, and her lore an infernal incantation, her very cooking a brewing of poison, nay, her very existence a source of sin to man. Thus, woman, as mother and priestess, became woman as witch. . . . Here is the reason why in all the Biblical researches and higher criticism, the scholars never touch the position of women.”

Men displayed a lively interest in the physical appearance of witches, seeking to know how to recognize them-as men also craved rules for recognizing other types of women from their physical appearance. It was generally agreed that any woman with dissimilar eyes was a witch. Where most people had dark eyes and swarthy complexions, as in Spain and Italy, pale blue eyes were associated with witchcraft. Many claimed any woman with red hair was a witch.

This may have been because red-haired people are usually freckled, and freckles were often identified as “witch marks,” as were moles, warts, birthmarks, pimples, pockmarks, cysts, liver spots, wens, or any other blemish. Some witch-finders said the mark could resemble an insect bite or an ulcer.

No one ever explained how the witch mark differed from an ordinary blemish. Since few bodies were unblemished, the search for the mark seldom failed. Thomas Ady, one of the few 17th-century English debunkers of the witchcraft craze, author of A Perfect Discovery of Witches (1661), recognized this, and wrote: “Very few people in the world are without privy marks upon their bodies, as moles or stains, even such as witchmongers call the devil’s privy marks.” But no one paid attention to this.

Trials were conducted with as much injustice as possible. In 1629 Isobel Young was accused of crippling by magic a man who had quarreled with her, and causing a water mill to break down. She protested that the man was lame before their quarrel, and water mills can break down through neglect. The prosecutor. Sir Thomas Hope, threw out her defense on the ground that it was “contrary to the libel,” that is, it contradicted the charge. When a witch is on trial, Reginald Scot said, any “equivocal or doubtful answer is taken for a confession.”

On the other hand, no answer at all was a confession too. Witches who refused to speak were condemned: “Witchcraft proved by silence of the accused.” Sometimes mere playfulness “proved” witchcraft, as in the case of Mary Spencer, accused in 1634 because she merrily set her bucket rolling downhill and ran before it, calling it to follow her. Sometimes women were stigmatized as witches when they were in fact victims of unfair laws, such as the law that accepted any man’s word in court ahead of any number of women’s. A butcher in Germany stole some silver vessels from women, then had them prosecuted for witchcraft by claiming that he found the vessels in the woods where the women were attending a witches’ Sabbat.

Sometimes the accusation of witchcraft was a form of punishment for women who were too vocal about their disillusionment with men and their preference for living alone. Historical literature has many references to “the joy with which women after widowhood set up their own households, and to the vigor with which they resisted being courted by amorous widowers.” The solitary life, however, left a woman even more vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft, since men usually thought she must be somehow controlled.

Those who tortured the unfortunate defendant into admitting witchcraft used a euphemistic language that showed the victim was condemned a priori. One Anne Marie de Georgel denied making a devil’s pact, until by torture she was “justly forced to give an account of herself,” the record said. Catherine Delort was “forced to confess by the means we have power to use to make people speak the truth,” and she was “convicted of all the crimes we suspected her of committing, although she protested her innocence for a long time.” The inquisitor Nicholas Rémy professed a pious astonishment at the great number of witches who expressed a “positive desire for death,” pretending not to notice that they had been brought to this desire by innumerable savage tortures.

The extent to which pagan religion, as such, actually survived among the witches of the 16th and 17th centuries has been much discussed but never decided. Dean Church said, “Society was a long time unlearning heathenism; it has not done so yet; but it had hardly begun, at any rate it was only just beginning, to imagine the possibility of such a thing in the eleventh century.” In 15th-century Bohemia it was still common practice at Christmas and other holidays to make offerings to “the gods,” rather than to God. European villages still had many “wise-women” who acted as priestesses officially or unofficially. Since church fathers declared Christian priestesses unthinkable, all functions of the priestess were associated with paganism. Bishops described pagan gatherings in their dioceses, attended by “devils . . . in the form of men and women.” Pagan ceremonies were allowed to survive in weddings, folk festivals, seasonal rites, feasts of the dead, and so on. But when women or Goddesses played the leading role in such ceremonies, there was more determined suppression. John of Salisbury wrote that it was the devil, “with God’s permission,” who sent people to gatherings in honor of the Queen of the Night, a priestess impersonating the Moon-goddess under the name of Noctiluca or Herodiade.

The Catholic church applied the word “witch” to any woman who criticized church policies. Women allied with the 14th-century Reforming Franciscans, some of whom were burned for heresy, were described as witches, daughters of Judas, and instigated of the Devil. Writers of the Talmud similarly tended to view nearly all women as witches. They said things like, “Women are naturally inclined to witchcraft,” and “The more women there are, the more witchcraft there will be.”

Probably there were few sincere practitioners, compared with the multitudes who were railroaded into the ecclesiastical courts and legally murdered despite their innocence. Yet it was obvious to even the moderately intelligent that Christian society deliberately humiliated and discriminated against women. Some may have been resentful enough to become defiant. “Women have had no voice in the canon law, the catechisms, the church creeds and discipline, and why should they obey the behests of a strictly masculine religion, that places the sex at a disadvantage in all life’s emergencies? Possibilities for expressing their frustration and defiance were severely limited; but voluntary adoption of the witch’s reputation and behavior was surely among such possibilities.

The Witch’s Teat and Fluffy, the Evil Devil Poodle


Author: Fire Lyte


Black cats, warty toads, and a menagerie of creepy, slimy, crawly animals have all been accused of allying themselves with witches. The image of the witch with her pointed hat and magic broom just wouldn’t be complete without Fluffy the magic talking cat taking a nap on the bristles as she flies through a full moon sky casting her spells on the unsuspecting public below. It is because of their connection to witches that many people are afraid of black cats, black dogs – otherwise known as Grims, and toads. In fact, people kill black cats every year, because people are so frightened of them. Where does this deep-seated fear come from, and is it merited?

The word we use to call a spirit in animal form that helps a witch is ‘familiar.’ This term originally comes from the Latin ‘familiaris, ’ meaning ‘domestic, ’ but it also has root definitions in the Old French ‘familier, ’ and the Spanish/Italian words ‘familia/famiglia’ meaning ‘family.’ Dr. Jim Maloney of NYU proposes that the noun form of ‘familiar’ that we use to mean a witch’s companion spirit most likely derived from these later definitions in the 1580s, because women that lived apart from society – who were tried for witchcraft – would have probably brought in stray or wild animals, nursed them back to health, and tamed them. That woman would have, most definitely, thought of such animals as family.

As with all things witchy in the Middle Ages, familiars got a really bad rap from their respective local populaces, as everything having to do with those put on trial for witchcraft was considered of the Devil. The Encyclopedia Britannica showcases these definitions clearly in their entry on familiars, in which they highlight that the noun form of ‘familiar’ – meaning an imp or spirit that assists, instructs, or otherwise augments a witch’s powers – came about in the Middle Ages during the witch trials. Not only were they thought of as spirits, but also they were automatically assumed to be demons.

But, let’s think about this for a second. So, familiars were actually wild or stray animals that men or women brought in from the outside – where they otherwise would have starved to death – nursed them back to health, and tamed them. Think about what this looked like to the average person in the 14th century in conjunction with what we know about the witchcraft trials. A man or woman living away from town near the woods, who has knowledge of medicine and agriculture, that subsists off of their own garden, and also seems to have tamed wild animals to do their bidding without any help from anybody else. Wouldn’t that seem strange to you? Would that seem a little…magical? It would if you lived 500-600 years ago and relied on your fellow townsfolk for your needs, and if you also happen to be a puritanical sheep that listened to everything your local fire and brimstone preacher said.

The Britannica goes on to explain that people believed these tamed animals must have been gifts from Satan, who apparently tames animals in his spare time. It was believed that the witch must feed the familiar by a mark given her by the devil known as the witch’s teat. During the trial of a witch, he or she was typically stripped naked and searched head to toe for such a teat. And, in every instance, some such mark of the devil was found: a mole, a wart, or even a finger could be used as evidence of this mark. Elizabeth Howe, Harvard scholar on the Salem witch trials, said in her book ‘The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane’ that a woman’s clitoris was also used as evidence of this witch’s teat. Once the mark was found, it was over for the defendant. The mark was considered a sure sign of the person’s guilt, and sentence was passed shortly thereafter.

However, a familiar wasn’t always just a mooch from Satan who sucked on a woman’s nether regions and blighted the crops of nosy neighbors. They could also be what are known as ‘tutelary spirits, ’ or ones that teach. Michael Freeze in his 1992 book Patron Saints talks about a host of tutelary spirits in various religions. From the African tribes that worshipped the spider god Anansi, to the Native American people whose entire pantheon was made up of animal spirits, to the magical foxes of Japan, to genies, angels, and devas, the never ending list of spirits that take the form of animals covers the globe. And, of course, none of them had anything to do with the devil.

Zeus turned into a swan and a bull in order to mate with a young, pretty girl. Odin had ravens that flew across the world and reported back to him each night the events of the day. Animals as teachers have had a firm place in religious and folkloric history for thousands of years. However, that was legally put a stop to in 1604 with England’s passing of the Witchcraft Act, which made it illegal to associate with, hire, be friends with, feed, or reward any evil spirit for any reason. The law was truly put into effect in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts when two dogs were tried, convicted, and hanged for being believed to be a witch or a witch’s familiar.

Given all this, though, familiars have become one of the most beloved tools of the modern witch. Every television witch from Sabrina, to the Halliwells, to Samantha had a cat that, in one way or another, identified itself as their familiar. They are there to point out information that is right under the witch’s nose, but is being overlooked. While many witches today like to keep an animal – or seven – around the house, the idea that they are working magical companions does not seem to be as prevalent as it once was. Or, is it?

Let’s go back to the original propagation of the familiar. They were probably animals that needed care, love, and attention from someone, and the people on the edge of the town were the ones that provided it. In all reality, did these people actually work magic or learn arcane secrets from these animals? No, but they probably appreciated the company and felt less lonely, which is a kind of magic in and of itself. Though, a quick scan through your local bookstore will tell you the notion still exists in modern witchcraft and paganism that we learn from our pets, and many texts actually encourage us with spells and high rituals to find our familiars.

A quick story: The folklorist William Morgan said that during the English Civil War, the Royalist general Prince Rupert was in the habit of taking his large poodle dog named Boye, into battle with him. Throughout the war the dog was greatly feared among the Parliamentarian forces and credited with supernatural powers. The dog was apparently considered a kind of familiar. At the end of the war the dog was shot, allegedly with a silver bullet.

So, what category do you fall in to? Are you the loving outsider who takes in strays or runaways, who has a house full of love and furniture covered in pet hair? Or, are you the puritanical witch who dances with the devil on the full moon and feeds Evil Fluffy from your nether-teat? Either way, make sure to spay and neuter your familiars. We don’t need more imps running around.


Footnotes:
William Morgan, “Superstition in Medieval and Early Modern Society”, Chapter 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutelary_spirit

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/familiar

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201201/familiar

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/401680/familiars_in_witchcraft_history_of_pg2.html?cat=37

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=familiar and searchmode=none

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~jmm257/familiar.html